The Amazing Bible. Book Club

Artaxerxes is now king of Persia, and he allowed Ezra and a second group of exiles to go home to Jerusalem. The king even provided financially for them to go. Ezra was a descendant of Aaron, the first high priest, and 7:10 says, "For Ezra had devoted himself to the study and observance of the Law of the Lord, and to teaching its decrees and laws in Israel." The trip took about four month...

Esther has been queen to King Xerxes of Persia for about five years (2:16 & 3:7). The man Haman has been elevated above all the other nobles by king Xerxes, and people were to bow down to him at the king's request, but Mordecai would not do so, which infuriated Haman. He decided that he did not just want to get Mordecai, but all of Mordecai's people, so he and his men threw lots, whi...

The story of Esther is during the time that the exiles were allowed to go home to Judah, but not all went. Those who went back, finally finished the temple, under the edict and financial support of Darius I, king of Persia. Darius, who brought the Persian empire to it's peak, has now died, and his son Xerxes, also known as Ahasuerus, is in his third year, and he is celebrating. When he was, &...

Chapter 4 of Ezra ends with the work on the house of God came to a standstill due to persecution and harassment from neighbors. Chapter 5 begins telling us that through the prophecies of Haggai and Zechariah, they spurred the leadership, Zerubbabel the governor and Joshua the high priest, and the people to start rebuilding the temple, and the prophets helped them. The foundations were built during...

These chapters cover Zechariah's second oracle, a word or "burden" from the Lord. It mentions about 17 times the phrase, "On that day," which shows us that much of what this oracle is about is futuristic. Much of it is in reference to the time of Jesus. 12:10 speaks of the "One they have pierced", and we know that Jesus was pierced when he hung on the cross in Jo...

Chapters 9-11 of Zechariah is an oracle from the Lord through Zechariah, and He calls judgment upon cities and areas around Judah and Israel. The Lord is now defending His house and His people. There is also a prediction of a new King coming, and He will come, not like anyone expected. He will come riding on a donkey, a coal, the foal of a donkey. This is a prophecy of Palm Sunday in Matthew 21:1-...

In chapters 7-8 of Zechariah, since the Jews are now home from exile, they asked the question do we need to continue fasting on months that reminded us of the Babylonian attack on Jerusalem? The 10th months was when Babylon laid siege on Jerusalem. On the 4th month Babylon breached Jerusalem's wall. It was on the 5th month that Jerusalem and the temple were burnt down, and it was the 7th mont...

Zechariah 1:7-6:15 cover the eight "night visions," and they get that name because 1:8 reads, "During the night I had a vision..." The 1st vision was of a man on a red horse among the myrtle trees and behind him were red, brown, and white horses. They were scouts throughout the land, and their report was the earth was at rest, and then the horsemen asked when will the Lord vind...

In Ezra 5:1, we learn that Haggai and Zechariah were both prophets at the same time to the exiles who returned to Jerusalem and Judah to rebuild the temple. They had started the task with building the altar and the temple's foundation, but due to persecution, they had stopped building. It was through  Haggai and Zechariah that they encouraged the leadership and the people to start building ag...

Haggai was a prophet during the time the exiles who were taken to Babylon, can now come home under the leadership of Cyrus king of Persia. Cyrus was even willing to support financially the rebuilding of the Temple of the Lord. They came home to Jerusalem, and built the altar and then the foundation of the temple, but due to the people who were living in the land, they discouraged the Jews so much...

Daniel received his last known vision during the third year of the reign of Cyrus King of Persia. He mourned for three weeks and fasted from mean and wine during that time. Daniel was by the Tigris River when he had his encounter, and the heavenly beings came to him because Daniel had set his mind to gain understanding, he had humbled himself before the Lord, and because he was highly esteemed. Th...

The book of Ezra begins in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia who made an edict that the Jews could go back to Jerusalem and rebuild it and the temple. This fulfilled the prophecy of Jeremiah (and Isaiah) that the exile would come to an end in seventy years. Jews came from all over the land, plus, Cyrus requested that they be given gold, silver, goods, livestock, and freewill offerings for the...

Daniel chapter 6 is the story of Daniel in the lions' den. Darius is king in Babylon, and Daniel was such an efficient and honorable man, that the king was thinking of having Daniel be in charge over the whole kingdom. Well, the other administrators did not like that idea, so they looked for ways to discredit him. They found no corruption, nor negligence, nor falsehood in Daniel, so they real...

In this chapter Daniel reads from Scripture, Jeremiah, that the desolation of Jerusalem would last 70 years. If we interpret the first year of Darius as the first year of Cyrus, when the Persian's and Medes conquered Babylon, this places the time around  536-537 BC. That means that Daniel had been in Babylon around 67 years, which means their release would be soon. When Daniel understood that...

Daniel chapter 5 covers the story that King Belshazzar was king of Babylon, and he was having a party even though the Persians & Medes were coming his way. He celebrated by taking the golden goblets that King Nebuchadnezzar had taken from the temple in Jerusalem, and not only were they drinking from them, but they all praised the gods of gold, silver, bronze, iron, wood, and stone. Suddenly th...

Daniel received two visions from the Lord during the reign of Belshazzar king of Babylon. Daniel had been in Babylon for about 50 years, and in the beginning, he had interpreted king Nebuchadnezzar's dream about the fall of Babylon and then the rise and fall of other kingdoms. These two dreams were similar in concept. The one in chapter 7 had four beasts which represented four kingdoms. The f...

Even though this chapter does not give a date, since verse 4 says, "I Nebuchadnezzar, was at home in my palace, contented and prosperous, it is believed it is a few years before the end of his reign (562 BC), after his conquests had come to an end. He had a terrifying dream which his wise men could not explain, but "Finally, Daniel came into my presence, and I told him the dream. (He is...

This vision from the Lord came to Ezekiel in the fourteenth year after the fall of the city of Jerusalem which would be around 572 BC. He had already seen a vision of the glory of the Lord leaving the temple, because of the sin of the Israelites who desecrated the temple with idols, and now he receives a vision that the glory of the Lord is coming back to the new temple. Ezekiel "took a tour&...

This last chapter of Jeremiah, reminds the readers that Jeremiah's prophecies about Judah and Jerusalem came true. Babylon did come and destroy Judah and Jerusalem. They exiled everyone except the poorest of the poor. King Zedekiah witnessed his sons and officers killed, and then his eyes were plucked out. He was placed in chains and taken to Babylon where he was placed in prison until the da...

This section of Scripture covers the judgments upon the nations surrounding Israel and Judah. The first to be addressed was Egypt, and the judgment was that Babylon was coming to Egypt to bring disaster, but there was a glimmer of hope in verse 26b, "'Later, however, Egypt will be inhabited as in times past,' declared the Lord.'" With the Philistines there was not a glimme...

In these chapters we see what happened after the fall of Jerusalem. The commander of the army of Babylon found Jeremiah and freed him. He chose to go back to Judah, even though the commander offered to take him to Babylon and take care of him. The king of Babylon, Nebuchadnezzar, placed Gedaliah as governor of Judah. The poor were left there to tend the land and the crops, and we learned in 40:12...

This book of poetic songs of lament were written because of the destruction of Jerusalem by Babylon on 586 BC. It is traditionally thought to be written by Jeremiah, and most of these 5 chapters were written as an acrostic, meaning each verse starts with the letter of the Hebrew alphabet. The main points found in the songs are 1) This devastation came because of the sin of the people in Judah, inc...

In these chapters we see how Jeremiah was persecuted for his preaching that Babylon was coming, and if they surrender their lives would be spared, but if they do not, it will not end well. In chapter 34, the last king of Judah was warned, but he and his people would not listen. Chapter 35 gives an object lesson on how the Recabites, kept their vow to the Lord and did not drink the wine set before...

Some years have passed between chapter two and three of Daniel. In the Septuagint, LXX, there is a note that chapter 3 happened in the eighteenth year of King Nebuchadnezzar's reign, which would have made it 586 BC, the year that Jerusalem and the temple were destroyed. That helps understand why, the king believes he and his god is supreme over the God of the Jews. Nebuchadnezzar build a gold...

Zedekiah was king of Judah, and chapter 24 ended, "Now Zedekiah rebelled against the king of Babylon." Oh no! Of course this brought King Nebuchadnezzar down to Judah with his WHOLE army, and they laid siege to Jerusalem. It took two years until the wall was broken through. The king and the soldiers fled. King Zedekiah was caught, but some of the soldiers escaped. Zedekiah was taken to K...